When looking at online marketing there’s a further extended marketing mix to take into consideration:
v Privacy- How willing are people disclose personal information? Disclosing personal information may deter consumers from a particular service depending upon the circumstances. Vital to have a strong brand reputation when consumers buy from you online; that privacy levels are set at the right level.
v Personal Interest- Understanding the different relationships and varied interests we share with our customers in order to tap into new market spaces. (i.e. many clothes stores now sell innovative home ware due to the growing understanding that consumers interested in fashion are potentially very conscious of the appearance and design of their home.)
v Personal Social Networks- companies now have to be contactable through a wide range of medium (i.e. website, Twitter, Facebook, email etc). Now an open means of comparing/ contrasting different markets (i.e. reviews where services/products can be easily ranked against each other, price comparison services, social media etc).
v Public Commentary- Focus groups through online (i.e. blogging, online forums etc)
v Personalization- The idea of consumers sharing in/belonging to the company belief through their personalized products/service, greater level of customization tailoring for the individual (i.e. Apple now offer the service of engraved iphones)
Nomadic Marketing- The idea of communities that move from one place to another, translating into business terms with that of shifting brand loyalties and communication with multiple different means.
Ø Participation- Two way relationship, use of customer feedback and transparency of company updates (creates a flow of information between customers, companies & stakeholders)
Ø Peer to Peer- Close friendships, more active communities in a personalized form, changes in attitudes to selling items that will genuinely benefit the consumer rather than merely going for the ‘hard’ sale that aims to manipulate and deceive.
Ø Predictive Modelling- Predicting customer behaviour, anticipating spontaneous action (i.e. laying out stock in a certain way to anticipate the order with which people buy/how products will catch the eye etc).
The power of brands is quickly becoming centred around the e-commerce and the idea of the ‘invisible (with the visible being the high street) however the war that is taken place is the idea of the personalization of the in store experience versus the convenience & accessibility of the online shop. However new innovators such as Matt Britain (managing director of Google UK & Ireland) are
attempting to capitalise on bringing these two experiences together by using trackable systems through smartphone applications through which consumers can locate what they want as they are walking down the high street thus reducing the browsing through multiple stores.
The means through which we communicate has changed through recent years, a clear example of this being the way in which we obtain news regarding current affairs. Whereas once upon a time we were reliant on traditional forms such as TV, Radio and newspapers which present an journalists edited version of events, we can now access to immediate mediums such as blogging, social media, and mobile phone images & video which are able to capture action directly as it happens thus leads us to perhaps believe that such as sources are more credible, though this may not always remain the case.
§ Ambient Marketing: Use of passive advertising, often placed subtly where you are likely to notice them but indirectly (i.e. back of travel tickets, front of sporting grandstands etc)
§ Viral Marketing: Viral as it almost spreads like disease, idea of contagious trends. (Can be utilized through technological mediums such as online ads, downloadable applications, , use of META data which records exactly who, when & where people are buying & using various services etc, use of email such as when MSN was first launched they included their logo at the bottom of any email sent from their service so this would be noticed by the recipient.)
§ Guerrilla Marketing: Becoming increasingly popular as it engage with the consumer on an interactive level (i.e. flash mob advertisement used by T-Mobile on Liverpool Street Station in London).
On this subject, I went to visit the Saatchi Gallery in London recently where all the sculptural exhibits were centred on the idea of technology in relation to nature; how it can both inhibit and support it, which relates back to one of my earlier blogs about a potential research idea I had in relation to the business of live events being inhibited by the development of new media. The range of new marketing strategies that have been opened up through e-commerce have allowed much wider consumers bases to be reached across the board of industries, however it has caused, what could be defined as negative repercussions to this such as the closure of multiple retailers on the high street.. However, only time will tell how quickly this current wave of technological culture becomes obsolete in favour of another craze.
On the note of the Saatchi Gallery, I also stopped by another exhibition sponsored by them and Channel 4 entitled ‘The Future Can Wait’ which gave a platform for new art graduates to showcase their work. One photography piece in particular that caught my eye consisted of several different photographs of foreign families which at a first glance appeared to be very ordinary. When I then read the explanation next to the work, it stated that these were instead images of immigrants in sheltered accommodation after being forced to flee their homes, thus posing the question, would you view these people in the same way if you were without this knowledge? The unfortunate reality is that undoubtedly we probably would not, proving how the presence of context, or lack of, can potentially alter and distort all perspective. Just a little thought for the day.
